The Lima Lima Flight Team performs Saturday afternoon during the Florida International Air Show at the Punta Gorda Airport. The event continues today, hopefully in better weather than Saturday's winds and rain.

By GARY ROBERTS

Staff Writer

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PUNTA GORDA — Cousins Marcus and Wayne, ages 7 and 6, peer up into the glass-enclosed, machine-gun turret of the B-25 “Mitchell” Medium Bomber, otherwise known as the “Killer B,” where their grandfather was stationed for much of World War II. Grandfather also had a nickname. He was part of the flight crew known collectively as the “Black Angels” — protectors of friendly fighter planes, punishers of enemy aircraft.

“Once the ‘Black Angels’ started up, none of our planes got shot down. He was a nose-gunner in this plane,” Walter Andalora, 74, of Punta Gorda, said of his brother-in-law. “When they got over the bomb-drop site, he held the button.”

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